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Somalia: Last stronghold of al-Shabaab militants falls to African Union troops
African Union troops pushed al-Shabaab out of Mogadishu in August 2011, ending four years of control of the capital by the fighters. The Ugandan and Burundian troops that make up the bulk of the African Union force in Mogadishu have slowly been taking control of towns outside of Mogadishu.
The expanding control by African Union troops sent al-Shabaab fighters fleeing south toward Kismayu, north to other regions of Somalia and across the Gulf of Aden to Yemen, according to African Union officials.
The al-Shabaab still holds sway across many small, poor villages of southern Somalia. The loss of Kismayu would be significant. The militants taxed goods coming into its port. Al-Shabaab lost its major source of financing last year when it was pushed out of Bakara market in Mogadishu, where it also charged taxes.
The march toward Kismayu by the Kenyan forces has been nearly a year in the making. Kenyan troops entered Somalia last October after a string of kidnappings inside neighboring Kenya, including of Westerners in and around the beach resort town of Lamu, which is also seeing the construction of a new port and could one day be final point of a new oil pipeline from South Sudan.
Kenyan forces were bogged down by rain and poor roads for months but have making slow and steady progress toward Kismayu in recent weeks.
More than 10,000 residents fled Kismayu in the last several weeks. Resident Faduma Abdulle said Friday that she is now leaving too. She said al-Shabaab announced false propaganda on its radio station Friday to trick residents into moving toward the invading troops.
“They told residents through their radio to loot a Kenyan ship that washed up on the coast, but instead the residents who rushed there were attacked by helicopters,” she said. “Some of them have died but I don’t know how many. The situation is tense and many are fleeing. It’s a dangerous situation.”
